


Low Red Moon

by laudanum_cafe



Category: Fall Out Boy, The Babadook
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 17:03:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11257152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laudanum_cafe/pseuds/laudanum_cafe
Summary: If anyone could work a miracle, it was the love of his life, Dr. Benzedrine.





	Low Red Moon

**Author's Note:**

> What started as one of my typical random blips on Tumblr actually grew into this. The sweet @ladymyst3ry contacted me with words of encouragement about that post and I decided to give it a go. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy. Please post comments and kudos...it motivates me. 
> 
> Also, pass by and say hello on my Tumblr @laudanumcafe

“Well? What does it say?” Mr. Sandman asked excitedly while trying to peer over the shoulder of his husband, Dr. Benzedrine. He was trying his hardest to catch a glimpse of the solution Benz was working on, regardless of the fact he knew nothing about how the actual process worked or what anything would mean even if he could get a good view. 

“Shh, calm down. The reaction hasn't started yet.” Benzedrine muttered while holding up a scientific beaker filled with a lime green liquid. He was trying to concentrate, make sure he followed each step precisely, but Sandman’s buzzing energy was palpable and quite distracting. Distractions caused mistakes and this was too important for them to take any chances. 

“I'm not sure if this one will work but if it does, then it should turn magenta if it's positive and black if it's negative.” Benzedrine gazed at the green liquid as he swirled it around and contemplated the weight of what these results held for them. “But...just...don't get your hopes up, love. It may not work at all.”

Sandman’s smile was huge. He wasn't wearing his trademark painted-on smile. It wasn't necessary when he was feeling this hopeful. 

“It's gonna work, Tricky.” Sandman whispered, reverting back to the old familiar nickname of their real world selves. They only used these names in private; never in the presence of any of the inhabitants of America’s Suitehearts. Sandman was confident in his husband's talents and abilities in creating a potion for anything one could desire. 

If anyone could work a miracle, it was the love of his life, Dr. Benzedrine. 

Benzedrine put the beaker on the table and turned around to face Sandman, cupping his husband's face and smoothing his thumb over the dark haired man's bright smile. “I want this so bad, Pete, but I've already failed four times. What if I can never get it right?”

“It will work, baby.” Sandman said while grabbing Benz tightly by the hips. His steely eyes flashed as he gazed hard into the doctor’s face. “This potion is gonna work. I can FEEL it.”

Benz couldn’t help the frown that played on his features. He had been working overtime in the lab trying to compose a solution and he so desperately wanted this potion to work. The previous failed attempts weighed his heart with doubt and made him start to question his abilities, his confidence, even his decision in coming to live in America’s Suitehearts. What was the point in living in a land of dreams if their one desire was unattainable? For Benzedrine, the ability to conceive a child of their own meant everything. He had been working for months trying to formulate a concoction that would work. With each test and each failure the doctor was left physically sick from the side effects and mentally destroyed with each negative conclusion of the pregnancy test. 

“I hope so, Petey. I don’t know if i can handle any more disappointments.” Tears started to well up in Benzedrine’s eyes and Sandman pulled him in tight.

“It WILL work, Patrick. It WILL.”

Benzedrine took in a deep breath and pulled himself away from Sandman’s embrace to focus his attention back to the beaker. He lifted the glass and swirled the liquid around, hoping to expedite the reaction time with his actions. Sandman was pressed flush against the doctor’s back with arms holding his waist as they both watched the lime green liquid for signs of a color change.

Soon, the liquid started to bubble and the two men gasped and held their breath praying to see a bright magenta color. The bubbling turned into a roiling boil with foam starting to fill the beaker.

When the contents settled, what they saw was an opaque black substance.

Benz immediately broke down into gasping tears and wailing cries, throwing everything off his table. Sandman restrained his husband and held him tightly.

“We’ll keep trying, baby. It WILL happen.”

** 

After several more months, Benzedrine secretly gave up hope. Almost a year had passed since he and Sandman decided to shoot for the impossible idea of formulating a potion that would cause Benz to get pregnant. Benz was ingesting countless potions not only for himself, but also for any of the requests he had to fulfil in America's Suitehearts. He was constantly sick now and at the point of finally giving up. 

He wanted to come clean to Sandman and tell him this but every time he encountered the dark man's beaming smile and hopeful energy he just couldn't do it. Sandman was darkness and shadows and mystery and sadness. But now, that dark man had a bright dream of his own to look forward to. 

Benz just couldn't break his husband's heart by telling him he had to give up. 

He kept up with his usual day-to-day tasks in the laboratory but his own personal child-bearing experiments were much fewer and far between these days. He managed to compose a few changes to the theories he had developed and made adjustments here and there but never with the same vigor and hope as before. 

Besides, he was so busy with the mountains of refill orders and potion requests now that the high season started in America's Suitehearts. With the influx of so many newcomers, Benz’s attention now had to be focused elsewhere. 

It did break his heart when several prenatal prescriptions and a few fertility requests came in. It put a dark stain on his heart; a reminder that he too was suffering the burden of being barren. 

At the rate he was going, he may have to ask Sandman to start painting a smile on his face, too. 

Pulling himself together, the doctor pushed his pain aside and went back to work. 

**

“No sir, I am quite sorry but the doctor is NOT in today.” Sandman stated firmly to the gentleman that very persistently insisted that he must speak to Benzedrine NOW. “He has taken quite ill lately and will be away indefinitely. I am sorry for the inconvenience and hope you have a better day.” 

Sandman was polite in his words but his actions were filled with disdain when he slammed the door in the man's face. He was plotting all types of nightmare scenarios with which to plague the man’s dreams tonight as retribution for trying to disturb his Benzedrine. 

When he returned to the bedroom, Sandman found his husband still in bed but hunched over the side and puking into the garbage can that was left at his bedside. 

He was sick from the side effects of one of the potions again. While Sandman understood the doctor’s insistence on trying everyone's potions on himself to avoid anyone getting ill, he was PISSED that his husband would be the one to have to suffer the consequences. No one in this land seemed to hold the doctor with the amount of high regard and appreciation that he so obviously deserved and he'd be DAMNED if he'd allow some unappreciative, entitled-acting prick to disturb his husband while he was sick. 

He practically BLED for these fucking over-privileged Hollywood wannabes. They could fuck off until Benz was stronger. 

(Besides, it was all their fault his sweet husband was sick in the first place. More demands meant more testing, which meant more ingesting, which meant more possible side effects, which meant THIS IS WHY HE’S SICK.)

Benzedrine wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and rolled onto his back. Sandman gingerly took a seat by his side and handed him a cup of water to take a few sips. 

“Who was it, Petey? Did a new order come in?” Benz asked. 

“No, baby. It was for me. Looks like I have a pretty heavy nightmare to compose tonight.”

Benzedrine wasn't stupid. He knew the person at the door was for him and Sandman was just being...well, Sandman. Overprotective and belligerent and vengeful. 

He just let it go this time. 

“Try and get some sleep, Kitten. I'll wrap you up in some soft dreams and fill your mind with music.” Sandman bent over to kiss his husband's sweaty and fevered brow. “When you wake up the world will come around.”

**

Catching up with his lab work after his recent bout of illness didn't take that long. His health and confidence were almost fully restored so once the bulk of his daily orders were filled, he set about making adjustments to his own personal potion. Benzedrine pulled out his personal ledger and flipped to the most recent notes. Glancing over his written observations, he begins to devise some possible adjustments to the theory. He compares notes from ledgers of similar content looking for suggestions and decides to try again. Before brewing the updated potion, Benzedrine starts the control solution and sets it off to the side before clearing his workspace for the new experiment. He's setting the beaker filled with the familiar lime green liquid down when he stops dead in his tracks and stares. 

The control solution had IMMEDIATELY turned a bright, iridescent magenta. 

Benzedrine’s heart starts to skip; pounding a hopeful syncopated rhythm. With shaking hands he forces himself to slowly and very carefully start another control sample as well as a secondary pregnancy detection potion. 

Both of these reactions take place immediately turning a bright, iridescent magenta. 

Benzedrine is staring at the three beakers lined up on his workstation in a state of shock and confusion. He's muttering to himself, a tick he's had since childhood, trying to work out in his head HOW this is possible. It had been many months since he worked on a potion for himself. He grabs all of his notebooks, reviews the entries for all of his orders, going down the timeline for the last few months and trying to think think think…

He can only come to the conclusion that this was some miraculous accident. This must be the result of mixing and ingesting various potions (some of which were fertility potions for females) causing some magical unknown combination that worked on him. Somewhere in these notes lie the secret to how this happened but the investigation for details would have to wait because he needed to find Sandy RIGHT NOW. 

Benz grabs a small sample vial, fills it with the pink liquid, carefully caps it, and heads out into the Shadow Forest to find his husband. 

**

Sandman was in the depth of the forest working with his shadows when he started hearing Benzedrine screaming out to him. 

“Peter! PETER! Where are you? PETE!!”

The use of his real world name out in public (not just in public, but literally being screamed through the hills) set his panic off immediately. Sandman quickly stops his dream wielding and retracts his shadows to surround him in a protective opaque shield. The sentient shadows stand at attention; dark tentacles tensed for battle and prepared to defend Sandman and Benzedrine even if their masters have fallen. Sandman can hear Benzedrine’s screams come closer...closer...and when Benz erupts from the forest and slams into Sandman he is already prepared for war. 

But between wheezing gasps, Sandy can see that Benz is actually smiling brighter than the sun. He's grabbing at Sandman’s lapels, laughing hysterically and he's emitting a strange soft glow. Sandman grabs him back by the upper arms and holds him at arm's length to inspect his face while the shadows unfurl and wrap smoky tendrils around Benzedrine. 

Benz keeps smiling and laughing; trying to catch his breath while unconsciously swatting at the shadowed tentacles. He lets go of Sandman’s garb and manages to compose himself. Sandman is still holding onto his husband's upper arms and watching him closely. He's afraid Benz is having a psychological episode from one of his experiments. While physical side effects were always dangerous, the mental delusionals were much harder to work through. 

Benzedrine knew this is what was worrying Sandman. “Pete, baby. I'm good. It's not a side effect.” Benz is literally beaming, glowing. “Look…”

Benzedrine reaches down into the pocket of his lab coat and pulls out the small sample for Sandman to see. 

“It's...it's...Patrick? Pink?”

Benzedrine, eyes filling with tears, nods. “Yeah, Petey. It's pink.”

Sandman drops to his knees and presses his face into the surrounding glow of Benzedrine’s stomach. Sandman is laughing, crying, wailing, weeping...while Benzedrine cradles his husband's head; mussing up his sticky, stiff hair. The Sandman’s shadows pulse with excitement around them before expanding out into shimmering trails traveling across the sky; looking like a universe of stars in a light fog. 

In celebration of their miracle, the world only has the sweetest of dreams that night.

**Author's Note:**

> I thrive off of love, attention and adoration. Please pass by and visit me on Tumblr @laudanumcafe  
> 


End file.
